Help! My toddlers love their dummies!
I swore blind before our twins were born that a dummy would never ever reach their little mouths! They would be cuddled, they would be nursed or rocked or maybe even sang to for hours on end to calm them, but a dummy would never pass their lips.
Bah ha ha ha ha ha!
Oh how foolish! How naive, innocent and sweet my views of raising our children were!
I remember one time when our twins were in special care. I had made it very clear to the nurses that I didn’t want our children to have dummies so imagine my anger, upset and general craziness of hormones running around when I unleashed a tirade of ramblings, rants and information about why my children would never have dummies on the poor nurse on duty when I found a dummy in R’s cot.
Oh that poor nurse!
She’d probably been working all night listening to babies cry, changing runny, smelly nappies and feeding babies too tiny to drink a bottle quickly and then the mother of all mothers strolls in and words of anger spill from her mouth straight into the ears of the tired, unsuspecting nurse!
She explained the nurse on duty had only given R a dummy for a few moments to quieten her so she could sort out the milk for the other babies.
I wouldn’t say that I owe that nurse an apology as she still went against my wishes at the time, but I can’t help but feel a little sorry for her.
Roll on two and a half years and I’m struggling to remove dummies from the mouths of our twins and on top of that I’ve just spent around £40 in one week on dummies because the little monsters keep chewing holes in them, but heaven forbid they try to sleep with a dummy in their mouths that have holes in!
Oh no! They make the holes with their very own teeth, but then whinge that they want a new dummy. One with no holes!
Argh!!!
So this is the question I pose to you! How do I wean them off dummies?!
I’ve made a stand today and have refused to give R or M a new dummy. They’ve had to make do with one dummy all day.
In fairness M has resisted the urge to bite her new dummy so she’s quite happy with her perfect, blue dummy.
R on the other hand bit and chewed her dummy to within an inch of it’s life within 5 minutes of me handing her the new dummy that I’d rushed to buy at 8am in the morning that very day on an empty stomach with no make-up on and I hadn’t even showered because the need for new dummies with no holes in was too great for me to make time for myself!
Is there an easy way? There must be surely! How do I wean my two and a half year old twins off dummies?
4 Comments
TalesofaTwinMum
November 4, 2014 at 9:46 am
That brings back memories. I didn't really care whether mine had a dummy or not but certain family members were really against them which put a lot of pressure on us not to give them. One of my boys needed the sucking action to calm him down as a baby and he had a dummy at night until he was about 2.5 (the other hated the idea of a dummy, and so did my daughter who arrived almost 3yrs later.) I was so worried about how I was going to get rid of it, but one night I couldn't find the dummy that he'd thrown under his bed and I told him the dummy fairy must have been on the spur of the moment. He looked upset but accepted it and only asked for it a couple more times over the next few days! I think I worried for nothing. If you want to get rid of them, just go for it. They will deal with it in a few days and it will all be forgotten. Likewise, don't feel pressured to get rid of them if you don't think the time has arrived- you can do it in your own time and if it's not having an impact on teeth or speech and it's making your life easier do what feels right for you as well as them. Good luck! xx
Alyssa Mumtoamonster
November 4, 2014 at 10:57 am
I'm dreading this . Not even considering it for th near future as he's a shocking sleeper anyway
Sarah Winder
November 5, 2014 at 9:38 am
With Thomas I just made him go cold turkey I just took it away one day and he never bothered again with it, maybe they will surprise you? Perhaps wean them off slowly, only give it at nap times of bed time not during the day, then maybe stop giving it them at naps times and when they are use to that start stopping it at bedtime.
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Honest Mum
November 11, 2014 at 10:40 pm
I say don't stress really, they will stop eventually, my kids stopped around 15 months naturally, think teething affected them. My friend told her kids the dummy fairies were coming one eve and they accepted it, another said her own mum threw hers down the toilet and that was that! Thanks for linking up to #brilliantblogposts x